1929 (40 page)

“Since he would have said hell no,” Aryl
said. “All weekend, they figured we took the boat and got into
trouble out on the water. They had search parties out for us and
everything. Thought something really bad happened.”

“I remember that part. I was helping in the
search for you two. Had me scared to death,” Jonathan added.

“Well, Sunday afternoon, we row home unaware
of what had been going on and found the whole damn town down at the
dock, all over the beach, and out in boats,” Caleb finished.

“I think your dad started beating you before
you were even out of the boat,” Aryl said.

“Yeah. Some welcome home that was.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I got
whooped, too,” Aryl said. “Just not as bad.”

“That was the last camping trip we ever took
as kids,” Caleb explained.

“Why weren’t you with them?” Ava asked
Jonathan.

“I had to work.”

“Work? You were twelve.”

“Yeah, but as far as my dad was concerned, I
couldn’t start learning early enough.”

“How old were you when you started working
for him?”

“Eight. By fifteen, I was doing the work of
an accountant and learning business taxation on the side,” Jonathan
said quietly and leaning on one elbow, pulled the covers up higher
around Ava, tucking them in around her back and shoulder as she
moved onto her side to face him.

“But you were still a child. Why did he push
you so hard? I never got that impression from him when we went to
visit.”

“Because when we went to visit, I was a
successful man. I had surpassed even his wildest expectations for
wealth and accomplishment.” He was whispering now, the community
story having moved to private conversations. He lay back down but
turned his head to look at her. “He was proud of me and of himself.
He figured pushing me so hard from an early age had paid off.”

“Did it?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Part of me
thinks I would have ended up the same, and the other part thinks I
would have gone to college and then stayed in Rockport. Started my
own business like my father. But then I wouldn’t have met you. So,
that alternate reality is unacceptable,” he whispered.

The resolution in his voice and the sincerity
of his eyes made Ava warm and content, despite the apartment’s
chill.

January 9th 1930

Thursday evening, Arianna stood at the sink,
peeling potatoes and hating every one she put into the pot of
boiling water. When this is over, when things are better, I never
want to see another potato again. She then remembered the fish in
the oven and pulled it out, only slightly burned, and set it next
to the sad, crooked little loaf of brown bread and went back to the
potatoes.

Caleb came through the door with his usual
chipper tone.

“I’m home, Ahna,” he called. She turned and
her smile was mostly from relief that she had help now. He glanced
over at the saggy rope in front of the fireplace, with clothes
thrown over it in careless clumps and the small puddles of water
under each on the floor. “You’ve done a lot around here today,” he
complimented.

Secretly, he used the same tactic with
Arianna that he’d used with a stubborn dog he’d had as a teenager.
He would praise and reward the scruffy mongrel for the tiniest bit
of obedience or effort, and just like with the old dog, he was
beginning to see progress with Arianna.

“Dinner’s going to be late,” she huffed. “I
think I did it out of order again.” She glanced at the over cooked
fish and the still-hard potatoes.

“That’s fine,” he said, grinning as he walked
toward her.

“What?” Her eyes narrowed at his wily
smile.

“I just realized something on the way home
from work today. Can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”

“What’s that?” She turned back to the
sink.

He closed in behind her, wrapped his arms
around her, and placed his hands over the now obvious bulge of her
stomach.

“We don’t have to worry about getting
pregnant anymore,” he whispered in her ear. Before she could
answer, he gasped.

“What was that?” he asked soberly.

“You felt that, too?” she whispered.

“Uh-huh. Was that . . . him?”

“I think so.”

Another flutter and Arianna’s eyes grew wide.
They both stood statuesque, waiting for another kick. It happened
and Arianna laughed a hard, quick laugh and turned to Caleb, who
was ghost white with a startled expression.

“I guess that’s a good sign, right?” she
asked.

He didn’t answer, his eyes just flickering
from her face down to her stomach and back.

“What’s wrong, Caleb?”

“Nothing. I guess that is a good sign. You
better go see that midwife soon.” His voice was quiet and monotone.
He shoved a hand through his hair. “You said dinner would be a
while?”

“Yes,” she answered, still staring down at
her stomach waiting for another bump.

“Okay, then, I’ll be right back.” He walked
calmly to the door, closing it softly behind him and then tore down
the hallway, nearly tripping over his own feet and banged on
Jonathan’s door.

He answered it with a smile that faded
slightly when he saw Caleb, visibly shaken; leaning on the doorway
with one arm and holding his stomach with the other.

“It’s moving,” he said in a deep voice.

Jonathan looked him over. He was pale and
sweating with a slight tremor.

“Did you eat something bad?” he asked.

“No.” Caleb shook his head. “The baby,” he
whispered.

“She felt it move? Well, that’s great . . .
What’s wrong, Caleb? That’s a good thing,” Jonathan reminded him.
Caleb had a very serious and dazed look on his face.

“Nothing’s wrong with it, it’s just–”

“It’s just that it’s real now,” Jonathan
assumed. Jonathan knew Caleb better than he knew himself. On more
than one occasion, he had witnessed Caleb’s somewhat innocent
perception of things throw him for a loop once the reality of a
situation truly hit him. Like with the tenements.

“Caleb. It’s going to be fine, okay? We have
the building to look forward to, and there’s still plenty of time
to get everything you guys are going to need. We're all going to
pitch in.”

Ava stood at the stove, eavesdropping with a
smile. She loved hearing Jonathan in a better mood; to hear him
reassuring Caleb was even more wonderful to hear.

“I don’t know, Jon, maybe this wasn’t such a
good idea?”

“Well, there’s nothing you can do about it
now. Besides work your tail off to get ready for that kid. Go home.
Eat dinner. Spend some time with Arianna. You’ll feel better about
this in the morning, I promise. Cards tomorrow night, right?”

Caleb mechanically walked back down the hall,
his mind buzzing with worries.

Jonathan closed the door, smiling again.
“Well, I can’t say I didn’t see that coming. He’ll be fine,
though,” he said aloud. “You might want to go see Arianna
tomorrow,” he told Ava.

“Why? What’s going on?” she asked, pretending
she hadn’t heard every word.

“She felt the baby move and Caleb’s a little
overwhelmed with the reality of it, I think,” he said and
grinned.

She put a plate in front of him with a heap
of diced potatoes with pepper gravy and a side of beets.

“Well, this is interesting,” he said.

“More importantly, it’s cheap.”

Their meals had gotten progressively smaller,
meatless and starch laden over the last few weeks.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“Your childhood. I was thinking back to the
story Caleb told when we all slept here the other night. I was
thinking that there’s a lot about your childhood that I don’t know
about.”

“There’s not a lot to talk about really. Just
a normal childhood,” he said, shrugging it off.

He preferred the questions and conversations
that bordered racy topics and caused repetitive blushing on her
part.

“What was your favorite thing to do as a
child?” she asked.

He thought about it for a moment before he
answered. “Probably exploring with Aryl. He always discovered neat
places and met interesting people. I learned a lot of my people
skills from him. It just came naturally. Everybody in and around
town knew him.”

“What about Caleb? What did you learn from
him?”

“How to birth a calf. Messy and unpleasant
stuff. Made me glad to go into business. One Saturday, I walked
over to his place to work on the tree house we were building, but
he had to tend to a calf that was being born. The mommy cow–”

“The mommy cow?” Ava interrupted,
laughing.

“Well, yeah, I don’t know what you call it,
but she was having a hard time, and it was taking forever. So, I
stayed with Caleb that day, and it was finally born by dusk. I
remember that Caleb, even though he was a kid, was so serious and
concerned about that cow.”

“Like how he’s concerned about the baby
moving?”

Jonathan almost choked on his dinner,
laughing. “I hadn't thought of that, but yeah, it was that same
pallid, anxious face he had tonight that he had back then.” He
dropped his head and laughed even harder as he recalled another
memory from that day. “And you should have seen his face when it
was born. He was so proud that you’d have thought he had fathered
the damned thing himself!” he howled.

Ava laughed and it crossed her mind that she
couldn’t remember being happier. Regardless of dismal surroundings,
less than appetizing food, sirens and babies wailing in the
background, Jonathan was laughing, his gorgeous blue eyes were
shining, and it was easy to forget about the rest when the most
important thing in the world to her was right again.

A knock at the door settled Jonathan’s
hysterics, and he tossed his napkin on the table as he rose to
answer it.

“It’s probably the proud papa again,” he
snickered.

Ava let out a quiet “Moo . . .” and he
snorted, suppressing a laugh as he swung open the door, but in one
fluid movement began to close it again.

“Jonathan, wait!” Ava recognized Ruth’s voice
and was up out of her chair.

“It’s about Victor,” she quickly spit out
just before the door was about to be slammed in her face. Jonathan
paused, the door open only an inch. He looked back at Ava, as she
pushed past him and pulled the door open.

“What do you want?” Ava growled.

“I came here to warn you,” Ruth said,
ignoring Ava’s presence.

“Warn us about what?” Jonathan asked.

“About Victor. He’s planning something–some
type of revenge. I don’t know what yet, I haven’t been able to find
out. But it’s serious, Jon. He hasn’t been right in the head since
he was attacked that night, and he is positive you had something to
do with it. He’s been acting funny for weeks. He’s hardly working,
he’s been drinking a lot and goes off on tirades about you. And
sometimes you, Ava,” she said, looking at her for the first time.
“He knows about the other times I came here,” she said grimly. “He
was paying his driver to report my every move to him.”

“If you know he’s going to find out, then why
would you come back?” Jonathan asked.

“I’m supposed to be playing bridge with
friends. I took the trolley. They’ll keep my secret.”

Ava looked nervously at Jonathan. He had a
heavily worried look about him, and all traces of happiness in his
eyes and smile were now gone. That caused Ava to panic much more
than news of Victor plotting revenge. He could plot and plan all he
wanted, but she couldn’t let Jonathan go back to that dark, distant
place she had just gotten him back from.

“Thank you for taking the time to warn us,”
Ava said, turning to Ruth again and reached for the handle to close
the door.

“I came to warn Jonathan,” she said coldly,
looking her in the eyes. “I know it bothers you that I still care
for him, but that’s the truth, Ava,” she said curtly.

“Thank you, Ruth, for warning us,” he said,
and placed his arm around Ava and closed the door.

“Jonathan–” Ava watched him walk to the couch
and sit, preoccupied. She followed him, sat near him, and watched,
waiting.

January 15th 1930

After breakfast, Ava walked down the hall to
Arianna’s as Jonathan suggested and found her closing and locking
her own door.

“Hey, I was just coming down to see you.
Where are you headed?”

“To see the midwife Dr. Westley suggested.
Will you come with me?” Arianna asked. “I’m kind of nervous meeting
her for the first time.”

“Sure. I heard you felt the baby move,” Ava
said as they headed out of the tenement.

“It’s so strange,” Arianna said. “It’s not at
all like what I expected. And I’ve felt it again twice this
morning.”

“It must be the greatest thing,” Ava said,
smiling at her. “Jon’s been talking a lot about just letting fate
decide when we have one. I’m not so sure, though.”

“Oh, you should!” Arianna gushed. “That way
our kids will be playmates!”

They began down the street, doing their best
to ignore their surroundings.

“There’s a little more to consider than that.
Aren’t you worried? I mean, there’s so much to think about and so
many things that should be in place beforehand.”

“I was worried. I cried every day for a few
weeks after I found out. But honestly, I’m not so worried now,” she
said, patting her noticeable bump. “Everything will work out. Caleb
promised me.”

“Well, Jon just wants to throw caution to the
wind so you guys won’t get too much of a head start on us. How
silly,” Ava said, shaking her head. “It's irresponsible.”

“I think Jon just wants all of our kids to
grow up together in the same way they did. I think they envision
little miniature versions of themselves palling around, causing
trouble and sticking together the way they have.”